Let's talk about the in-game welcome screen!

Just if you can make it smaller... on small screen computers it causes problems...

I'm with the crowd. I don't read it as a rule and just close it ASAP.

Although I do remember when that page was breaking EQ because of all the web-content on it...to the point the devs had to disable the page for a while. Which says that less is better for the health of the game in this case.

I think from the marketing point of view, the new patcher has largely replaced the original function of the welcome screen. Which is probably why they don't update it much anymore.

1. Don't waste your time.
2. Never. I press Esc the moment that window pops up, before it even loads its contents.
3. None. I would like an option to permanently disable that window and never see it again.

An option to turn it off and never see it again would be swell.

I'd recommend all three places you mentioned, and Facebook and the Wiki and any other place people can think of.

So you don't have to update 5 different calendars, you could make one and embed it in all the other places. Along with embedding, a RSS feed would be nice.

A server population would be nice to see on the welcome screen... so players when they log in can see the servers and how they stand population wise... if you still refuse to show is the numbers... show us the low/mid/high.... so we can see that....

There's already the screen you see when the patcher is doing it's thing, that will list any new news--that I pay attention to.

The in-game welcome screen is something I typically close before it loads.

What might make me pay attention? Less clutter. Less info. Seems busy.
Have it list my Station Cash, and if I have new LON cards to claim, or new loyalty points (if there's a trigger for that stuff).

Let me go to a Herald in PoK to opt-out of it (or back-in).

I vote for the ability to turn it off and have it stay off.

Just give the option to remove it, please. It's absolutely annoying, and I can't think of anybody that likes to be spammed with an enormous windows when just entered the game. If your idea of marketing is to spam big windows with mostly useless information and not loading correctly, you have bad marketing advisers. It's like when you're searching in a web, and suddenly a loud bell rings from one of your windows, jus advertisements. Do they really think that helps to buy that product? Nah, it just make people angry.

For me, it is 1 of those Things that irritate me, and as fast I can get it closed the better.

Best options for me would be that there would be an option to turn it off.

if this is a market type thing it sure is a way to annoy people and make them not want things, well least me. I was going to make a custom welcome screen for my UI that just had a close button on it and you could see nothing else. really would like to see the option for it to just go away and save my the 10 mins to make that custom window.. and if it does not go away i will make it soon and link it to here so others can use it as well.

Can this please just go away? I'd venture a guess at this point that it has probably cost more money than it ever has or ever will bring in. The debacle where it was causing several performance issues some months back probably sealed the deal on this ever being viable.

If it has to stay around, can it just be another one of the annoyances advertisements that silver accounts deal with before/during/after playing?

If it has to stay around and it has to be applied to all members and cannot be disabled, I suppose I'd prefer if it had a short detail of current special events, perhaps a link to a list of hot zones or some such, and maybe a really, really short line about what is currently on sale in the Marketplace.

Most importantly, though, can it please just go away? It can be laden with the most useful of information and pressing escape will still be the absolute first thing I do when I log in.

P.S. Can it please just go away?

If it keeps the game going for another five or ten years, I will happily look at what SoE tries to sell me every time I log into my favorite game.

I do not want to see any more layoffs!

I never read it. In fact, I cannot exit the thing out fast enough the second that I log in.

Its bloatware.

I vote ditch the screen or give an option to disable it.
if people really want to see it it can be opened from the EQ button on the top of the drop down. I have mine disabled but do not want to say how because they will prob fix that and it is not what I want to pay for looking at that screen I close faster than rabbit sex.

First of all, please justify why it's necessary for Gold members not to be able to disable it completely. You have space to advertise in the Launcher and other ways. A pop-up is ANNOYING!

Now if you want to put useful, timely information there, I still don't want it. The only way I'd ever want to see it is if it a) didn't pop up on my Gold account against my wishes and b) offered unique stuff like coupons or buttons to gate to the Hotzone or Hardcore Heritage zone or Guide event.

Even then, why can't we at the very least check a box that disabled it if there's no new info???

If you want to fix something, how about the chat server that can't handle everyone being in the same channel, or Expedient Delivery Vouchers not functioning as advertised, or squash some bugs.

I see two scenarios. One, if it is decided that it must stay up, it should include information that is updated or changed on a regular basis. Two of these things being 1) new marketplace items, and 2) upcoming weekly content.

The other scenario, which isn't mutually exclusive to the first one, is to give players an option to not have it load.

I would also suggest that you keep it as clutter free as possible, and minimize the load it has on the eqgame process. The engine is old, and having it load a bunch of images and other fluff data just taxes the program more than it needs to.

The best thing that can be done to the welcome screen would be letting us disable it.

I close this window before it even loads. I would like a way to disable/enable it please.